Thursday, June 22, 2006

AT&T revises their privacy policy and says they will share more data!!

The Wall Street Journal has just announced that AT&T have revised their privacy policy and plan to share more data!. I quote from them:

"AT&T Inc. said it clarified its privacy policy for Internet and television customers to state explicitly that subscriber information is a business record belonging to the company and may be turned over to law enforcement in some cases.

AT&T also indicated that under its revised policy, which takes effect tomorrow and is being emailed to its more than seven million Internet customers, the San Antonio company plans to track customers' TV viewing habits. Some privacy advocates said they were troubled that the new policy appeared to be an attempt to give the company broader control over customer information."

Ooooh Mama, that's gonna light up a storm from consumers and privacy advocates in the US. AT&T may be right revising their privacy policy to protect themselves - its just a shame they are not willing to protect their customers as well.

Their approach is sailing way too close to the wind in our humble opinion and will likely lose them both customers and good will. Shame.